Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S3E6: “Among Us Hide” Review

This episode gave us great action, delightful humor, human characters, and the biggest reveal in years...

Lash is Out

In one hour, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has managed to subvert many of fears, reinvigorate my interest in the story, and get me excited for the characters and the future of the MCU’s television arm. Where to begin? Oh, and spoiler alert, I guess.

Let’s go character by character again, shall we? And who better to start with than the head honcho himself. Director Coulson was, essentially, a vessel for some of best character development we’ve seen on the show so far. He asked all the questions necessary to turn Rosalind Price from decent semi-antagonist to complex human character. The reveal that she was keeping Inhumans in, essentially, a medically-induced coma would, under normal network TV circumstance, have created a pretty paint-by-numbers villain. However the well-timed backstory and deftly delivered dialogue elevated the scene and introduced a surprising amount of humanity into Rosalind. It was a pretty unique moment for the show and it is setting up for a complex relationship between the character.

All the characters, that is. Having Daisy, Mack, and Lance overhear the exchange (or at least the bad part of the exchange) is creating some great intra-team conflict. Sure, Coulson could explain the situation to the others, but would they really believe him? He’s already made some big compromises that have bothered the team, so this might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Speaking of Daisy, Mack, and Lance, these three characters were firing on all cylinders today. They had palpable chemistry, the acting was rock solid, and the humor was pretty laugh-out-loud at times (see: Nick punching a dude for a blood sample). It was a great series of scenes that accomplished so many different things for the episode.

The chemistry, while great, just didn’t quite measure up to that of Bobbi and May, however. Disclaimer: May is my favorite character, and Bobbi is right up there, so I might be biased, but these two gave us some of more memorable moments from the show in terms of sheer glee. The Mandarin bank heist, the regular (but still awesome) action, and the underlying mentor-mentee relationship made for a great episode of television.

Normally the “important” thread tends to be the driest, due to the necessary amount of plot that needs to be conveyed, but from start to finish these scenes just worked. And important they were. We learned quite a bit about Hydra from Strucker von Mini, and it led to the biggest reveal of the series since Ward’s loyalties: Lash’s identity.

A few weeks ago I guessed that Rosalind’s little buddy was Lash. He got a lot of screen time, seemed to be important, and just…looked mean. Furthermore, this show’s villains can usually be spotted a mile away (save for Ward, who wan’t written to be a villain for most of his time with S.H.I.E.L.D.). So I was pleasantly surprised, elated even, to see that the show knew about my expectations and thwarted them accordingly. He fooled everyone from me to Daisy, making the final reveal all the more rewarding.

Andrew is Lash. I can dig it. While his non-death wasn’t surprising, his transformation is. He’s a bad guy on the inside and, yes, he is a bad guy. This isn’t any Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation. He straight up murdered those people. So now we have a great new source of tension within the team and, at least until Bobbi and May return, some great dramatic irony. Watching him question Daisy was a great finale for the episode and, for the first time in a long time, I have no idea what is going to happen.

It’s a great feeling, isn’t it?

Odds and Ends

So wait, is Baby von Baron dead? That was fast.

Coulson, you aren’t…falling for Rosalind, are you? Now now, director, calm down, you have a top secret national defense organization to run. Do you really have time to be swooning over the ATCU?

Bobbi should eltrocute more people in a pool. That was rewarding. Environmentally-prudent fight scenes are always fun to watch and clever to execute, so more instances of that would kick the fight scenes up a notch.

I really want the Margaret Thatcher thing to be a running joke. Don’t ask me why..

Alex Russo likes to talk about television. You can read more of his insane ramblings on Twitter.